


Murder Most Foul

by TrueMyth



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: AU, AU: Lilly never died, AU: Veronica dead, Celeste Kane/Jake Kane - Freeform, F/M, Logan Echolls - Freeform, Murder, Season 1 Spoilers, Season/Series 01, Sex, five things fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:11:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueMyth/pseuds/TrueMyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A high school girl investigates the murder of her best friend. Sound familiar?  Here's how it didn't happen, all because Lilly never died that October afternoon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Murder Most Foul

**~ One Day After The Day She Should Have Died ~**

This was getting old.

He was getting old.

Lilly noted the way the skin around his eyes bunched up as he closed them with each thrust. She tilted her head deep into the pillows as she bucked into him and cried out in abandon the way he seemed to like it. All the while, though, she noticed the way that his hands always held her in just the same place, and the way he seemed to be acting for an audience, even though they were the only two in the room.

If someone had told her two weeks ago that fucking a movie star could be this boring, Lilly would have laughed in their face. But Aaron Echolls was teaching her a valuable life lesson as he strained above her before pausing for a brief near-pose: Practice doesn’t always make perfect. Lilly hadn’t even been that sad when she’d found Logan’s note in her car and had to cancel her little tryst with Aaron the day before. The interruption of Logan’s early return from Mexico should have pissed her off. Only not so much. It was definitely time to cut Aaron loose.

But first, the bastard was going to make her come.

He owed her that much. Owed it to her to take her mind off of Veronica’s disappearance and Logan’s ultimate rejection.

Lilly Kane twisted in bed and straddled Aaron. He looked surprised but not upset, if that fake Hollywood grin could tell her anything. She reached behind her back and unsnapped the bra that he’d been too busy to see to. Lilly cupped her breasts, not in offering to him, but to build any kind of stimulation. And then her hand slithered down her body, as she began to rock her way slowly towards heaven.

Sometimes, if you want it done right, you have to do yourself.

**~ One Week After The Day She Should Have Died ~**

“Which one of you wants to be the first to have your ass handed to you by a girl?”

The two freshman twerps took one look at Lilly and stumbled over each other in their hurry to clear the library. They didn’t see the way the tough bitch façade cracked as she fell into a seat and stared at the computer screen. The pale blue face of her best friend, caressed by the loving touch of green-black kelp, looked back at her. Well, that was a lie. Veronica would never actually be looking at anything any more.

It had taken less than 24 hours after they found her body for the video to hit the web. Thanks, Dad.

Lilly closed the window with an angry jab as her vision started to blur. She turned, running into the stacks before someone could see the Princess of Neptune High in such a state. The sight of an orange shirt managed to penetrate her tear-veiled gaze.

“Logan? What are you…” The raggedness of her own voice upset her, but she pushed the thought aside.

He didn’t turn.

She heard a soft sob and grabbed his arm, hard, spinning him around to face her. He glared at her; obviously pissed off that someone was seeing him in this state, even more pissed off that it was the girl he wanted nothing to do with. But they’d both lost Veronica. Logan had never said anything about it, or done anything, but Lilly had known that he cared about Veronica a little bit more than he technically should have. Nothing would have ever happened between them, it wasn’t even a crush, really. Veronica had always represented a sort of innocence to Logan that Lilly had never been able to crack. But, as she searched his eyes and saw a shade of pain that halfway matched her own, she was glad she’d teased that bond, glad it was there.

Lilly moved into Logan’s embrace and reveled in the bruising force he used to hold her to his chest. They were silent as the bell rang and the library emptied of all other students. The only evidence of their grief was the growing moisture on her hair and his shirt.

“I should have never invited her over.” Logan’s rushed statement shattered her peaceful grief, and Lilly pulled back to face him.

“What do you mean?”

Logan was staring off through the shelf across from them. “If I hadn’t called her late. Hadn’t let her drive home alone… I know she’s not an 09er, but she didn’t live in the fucking barrio, you know? And then some freak gets her to stop the car and –” He was crying again now, sinking to his knees as if the emotional quicksand of his guilt was too much, burying his face against Lilly’s stomach.

Lilly’s eyes narrowed over the top of his head.

**~ One Month After The Day She Should Have Died ~**

The crack of skin against skin finally silenced the shouting as Lilly leaned against the hallway wall. Her parents had been going at it for hours, and Dad had finally snapped and admitted that, yeah, Lianne Mars gave it to him better than Celeste ever had. Wonderful. It was times like these that Lilly had to face how truly fucked up she was, because she could no longer ignore the reason she was fucked up. Repressed mother, check. Distant father, check. Secrets revealed that were about to rip the family apart, check-fuckity-check-check.

A low wail crawled down the hall and climbed like spiders up her skin. Duncan still wouldn’t take his medication. He wasn’t coping too well with Veronica’s death, and the latest news had brought on another attack. He’d almost killed Celeste when the post-mortem paternity test had came back negative. Veronica had never been their half-sister.

Keith Mars was a man obsessed. He didn’t want to believe that his daughter had been the random victim of some PCH mugging. Everyone in town had been so titillated when he’d broken the news of Jake’s potential paternity. The Kanes lived only a few blocks from where her car had been found, after all. Celeste had already gone to great lengths to try to get Veronica out of their lives. And now? Well, Keith wasn’t going to let it go. Just because he was Veronica’s biological father didn’t mean the Kanes had known that. It didn’t eliminate the motive.

The town saw things differently. The petition for the recall election was nearly full. Her father’s affair with Lianne only made him seem more glamorous, more intriguing.

Lilly peeked around the corner and nearly gagged at what she saw.

Celeste certainly seemed to see the attraction.

At least Lilly could finally be proud of her mother. Piano fucking and neck biting - now that was a bit more impressive than the bored coupling she’d walked in on last year. Yes, once she found some bleach for her eyeballs, Lilly was sure she’d be proud.

**~ One Year After The Day She Should Have Died ~**

Lilly slammed the newspaper down in front of Keith and held her arms akimbo as she met his gaze with a challenge. Keith didn’t need to read the headline of ‘ELI NAVARRO ARRESTED IN MARS MURDER.’ He only shrugged.

“How can you let this happen?” Lilly demanded. “You know Weevil didn’t kill Veronica. He didn’t even know Veronica.”

Keith gestured for her to have a seat, but Lilly preferred to stand as she waited on his answer.

“I’m not the sheriff anymore, Lilly. I can’t control who they arrest. I’m just a lowly P.I.” He smiled at her like the saddest clown in the circus.

“But it’s not _true_ ,” Lilly protested. She leaned forward, pressed her hands against the top of the desk between them. “If they convict Weevil, they’ll stop looking. They’ll never find out who killed her. He’ll go _free_.”

Keith’s affable expression hardened as he sat back in his chair.

“What am I supposed to do, Lilly? I’m sorry to tell you this, but life isn’t perfect. There are harder things to decide than what color lipgloss to wear, that are more difficult to face than a boy not inviting you to prom.” His frustration clawed at her ears with every word he spit out. She wasn’t offended by his opinions of her priorities. She hadn’t thought of much more besides lipgloss and men before Veronica’s death.

“I –” His voice broke and he cleared his throat, “– I don’t even know where to look now.”

Lilly closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I think I know who did it.”

**~ One Decade After The Day She Should Have Died ~**

Coming full circle had taken on a whole new meaning as Lilly screamed Aaron’s name to the pool house ceiling. Not that he had actually learned anything in ten years. If anything, he’d grown even more complacent. She speculated that it came from mostly fucking young starlets who were looking for a recommendation. What better place to put on a performance than in bed?

Keith would kill her if he knew she was here. Weevil would have probably killed Aaron. But they didn’t have a choice any longer. One by one, all the leads had dried up. They could prove that Veronica had been at the Echolls mansion on the night of October 3rd, 2003. No one was disputing that. But the security tape only showed one shadowed figure driving the Le Baron out the security gate. After that, there was no hard evidence, one way or the other. The salty brine of Neptune Bay had eaten away so much of the physical evidence on her body. All potential witnesses had either conveniently disappeared, or swore up and down that they saw a lone thug on a motorcycle drive up the pier with a blond girl, and then return with no one.

Lilly was desperate. And that was why she was currently screwing murderer of her best friend.

She pushed him hard, made him work for it, and kept pouring drink after drink. It took hours of unimaginative sex before he finally collapsed on the bed and she could put her last plan into action.

Lilly slid from the rumpled sheets and crept quietly to the bookcase. Just as she’d discovered years ago, the heavy wood rolled back to reveal Aaron Echolls’ dirty little secret. With a quick wave to the cameras, she pulled open the cabinet below and began to search.

Unlabeled. All but one that was dated two days earlier.

Okay, so he wasn’t storing the videos here. That made sense.

Lilly pulled on her clothes in a rush and ran to the main house. She’d learned a lot more about Logan as his friend than as his lover, and as a result, she found out she’d learned a few things about Aaron. Fucking abusive bastard. His study had been his throne room. And he had a safe there.

Her blood was pounding in her ears and she ended up yanking the poster of “Beyond the Breaking Point” so hard, it fell with a crash of shattered glass onto the floor.

Fuck.

Lilly tensed, but the house remained silent and she sidled up to the safe. She pulled a piece of spy-gaget wizardry she’d borrowed from Keith out of her purse and connected it. The combinations cycled, and Lilly tried not to pace as she waited. There were five numbers that had to be cracked, and not a lot of time to do it. She willed the safe-cracker to move faster and was rewarded when the first digit locked into place.

The second number came quickly on its heels, and she began to relax and think about what it would be like to finally be done with this. To finally be able to fuck a man and not feel guilty about the lives it could ruin. To finally be able to remember the good times she’d had with Veronica without remembering the painful years that had come afterwards.

Three and four clicked into place. Lilly placed a trembling hand on the opening catch of the safe.

Not that this would ever solve everything.

Veronica would still be dead.

As soon as the fifth digit clicked and the display turned green, she pulled hard on the safe door. Lilly’s breath exploded from her mouth in disbelief at the number of tapes and recordable DVDs inside. But here, they were all labeled.

One after another, the homemade porn flew over her shoulders. Just a date, or sometimes a name, graced the covers in the same confident handwriting. Years flew past: 2012, 2011, 2010 – Duncan was finally admitted to a ‘clinic’ – 2009, 2008 – Weevil’s appeal denied – 2007, 2006 – Veronica should have graduated from high school while her dad cheered from the front row – 2005, 2004, 2003. At last.

Lilly slowed down. She cringed at her name on a pair of tapes. And there it was. A tape with no name.

Lilly opened her portable tape player and popped in the tape. She had to be sure that this was what she needed, because after this, there would be no going back. The screen blinked to life.

Seeing Veronica in her pep squad uniform brought tears to Lilly’s eyes. Logan offered to go and get them drinks while she waited in the pool house, so they could talk some more. The look Logan cast her as he left, that Veronica couldn’t see because her back was turned, didn’t surprise Lilly at all.

And then Veronica did what it was that Veronica did. She looked up, straight into the lenses of the camera, and, smart girl that she was, she knew. She followed the cable with her eyes, just as Lilly had done one day later, to the bookcase. Pulled it open and found the tapes. Opened the one labeled ‘October 1st’ and… The screen cut to a faded fuzz.

Lilly wiped back her tears and moved to pack the tape and her equipment in her bag.

And she saw his leg in her peripheral vision.

She followed it up to his face, and then down length of his arm, which was holding a gun three feet from her head.

“You girls never learn, do you?”

Aaron fired twice and watched Lilly Kane fall dead at his feet.

It seemed right somehow.

**Author's Note:**

> I am slowly transferring some of my fanfiction over from the old LiveJournal account. If you care to find me now, Tumblr is the best place for that. Same bat username, same bat channel, or something like that.
> 
> Written for the 5thingsthat (LJ community) “Five Things That Never Happened to Lilly Kane” challenge and thus in Five Things format. Gasp! Constructive criticism welcomed. My first actual take at a Five Things. Speed beta’d by the beta most excellent, sarah_p.  
> Originally posted [here](http://fic-from-mars.livejournal.com/83715.html).


End file.
